Livestock-caused injuries to farmers and animal handlers are a serious concern for those who work with larger animals. Livestock can pin a farmer against the side of a building or other unyielding structure, resulting in broken bones and other serious injuries. Livestock can easily injure a person by knocking him to the ground. Large farm animals have caused serious foot injuries by simply stepping on the farmer's feet. The sturdy caps of steel-toed shoes have been known to buckle when stepped upon by farm animals, and badly crushed toes have at times required amputation. In addition, some animals will nip or bite people working amongst them. Deaths, while infrequent, have also been attributed to encounters with livestock.
The threat of a debilitating injury is a real one that increases with the size of the animal involved in the injury-causing incident. Hogs normally will reach a weight of about two hundred pounds or more in about six months, and mature animals can weigh between six hundred and a thousand pounds or more. Similarly, cattle raised for slaughter will reach a thousand pounds when sent to market and can reach weights considerably in excess of this if allowed to continue to grow. Animals of such size possess great physical strength and can easily cause injuries to people.
Most livestock-caused injuries have occurred as a result of innocent encounters between the farmer and his livestock where there is no hostile attack by the animal. Modern farming techniques, however, have increased the likelihood of a hostile encounter with a farm animal generally and with an aggressive or angry one in particular. More and more animals are being raised in confinement situations where a large number of animals are held in a small area. Animals tend to become more aggressive as they become more confined With modern farming techniques of animal confinement, then, increasingly aggressive tendencies in animals have been seen. This leads to a greater chance of an injury to a farmer or other person moving amongst the animals because the injury-causing encounter is less likely to be an innocent one but rather one of aggression where the animal intends at least to physically contact the farmer if not to cause an injury.
The farmer or other person working around animals often experiences a greater risk at feeding time due to an animal's often agitated or aggressive states. For example, a farmer feeding hogs will often have his hands occupied by carrying pails of feed and will be unable to ward the hogs away. The hungry and eager hogs become excited and move towards the farmer, pushing and shoving each other to be first at the feed. Often they will push each other into the farmer, jostling him from one or more sides, stepping on his feet, constantly unbalancing him. Additionally, since the hogs are quite often dirty from rooting or wallowing, brushing against the farmer will frequently leave him wet and dirty. When this happens at the beginning of the day the farmer is forced to choose between changing clothes or living with damp and dirty clothing for the rest of the day. Both alternatives are a nuisance and the former can break up and introduce delays in an already busy day.
Electrical devices have been used by farmers to herd and control livestock. Thus, it is known to provide high voltage livestock prods that have a pair of closely spaced open electrical terminals of opposite polarity disposed at the end of a shaft. When the terminals are brought into contact with an animal's body the animal receives an electrical shock.
While prods are useful, the farmer must have the prod in his hand in order to use it. If the farmer needs both hands free for work, he must holster the prod. At present, there are no devices available that a farmer can utilize in warding such animals away when working amongst them that would leave the farmer's hands free for work.
It would be desirable to have a device that a farmer, veterinarian, or other animal handler working amongst livestock could use to ward off the approach and dangerous contact of the animals without causing permanent injury to the livestock and which would allow the person free use of his hands to accomplish his work. The present invention has accomplished this goal.